Monday, December 04, 2006

Take care now!


3 signs in 30 m!
Originally uploaded by m.hadley.
Take care lest you fall.....
Be thankful there are people out there to look after you. In case you didn't realise that there's a cliff where the land ends and the sea begins, now you will be reminded every few metres if you walk from Peveril Point to the top of the Downs. Just don't forget your welding goggles so the neon yellow doesn't dazzle you blind.

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Might the council's insurers have asked for this in case someone tumble off the edge and sue the council for having an unsafe cliff top? I'm surprised there isn't a dirty great fence all round the coast to protect us. It may be for the same reason that every tree with branches overhanging the highway has been butchered.

The Postman said...

Yes, fear of liability is the reason -- but surely such action is only needed where the risk is not glaringly obvious? And if someone can't spot there's rather a large and sudden gap between the land and the sky - will they notice a sign, however lurid?

Anonymous said...

Good point, but at work the cleaners have to put out wet floor warning signs.
In the eyes of the law the fact that you are mopping a floor isn't enough to warn evryone that the floor may be dangerous

Anonymous said...

The mind set is all down to money. It is said that a visitor who fell over the cliffs of Dorset said to the Coast Guard when they arrived, “Don’t call a doctor, get me a lawyer”.

RobO

The Postman said...

continuing the daft theme.. a doctor friend of mine fell on the rocks, asked the Coastwatch to call an ambulance, because she knew her ankle was broken..but oh no, they were in the Coastguard system now, so instead of an ambulance popping along from two minutes away, a helicopter was called from Portland. And we wonder where the money goes...

Anonymous said...

In English law it's a matter of 'redress'.
If you can prove, oversight or incompetence then you can be redressed for your incurred expense and injury.

In English law there is no redress for an accident.

In the media today there is a story that a village fete has been told to do a risk assessment on their mince pies.

Everyone - me included - rolls their eyes etc.

What this is about is protecting yourself.
If your mince pie contains something that is known to cause allergic reactions, you have to warn the Great British Public - US.

Y'know, you buy a packet of nuts, and in the small print it says - 'may contain nuts'.

This is of course absurd. It's absurd because of our law.

I quite agree that putting up warning signs that you're about to die is absolutely, completely and utterly f"£c^n&, sorry, absurd.

But our law, and the people who exercise their knowledge of it, have created a situation in which we can deny personal responsibility because we wern't warned.

As personal responsibility is often a concern of our chats isn't this just symptomatic - is that a word? - of our malaise?

An American phrase 'Ambulance chasers' solicitors who try to find work.

We don't usually mind people who advertise themselves and their services, have a gander in phone boxes in larger towns!

We usually seem to applaud people who 'get on their bike'.

Where've we gone wrong?

Anonymous said...

Hope I'm not cross-posting , but

The Postman said, in another thread;

I think we all like the cafe / pavement culture -- which works where the pavements are big enough and owned by the business. Otherwise, surely the public have the right to walk (or wheelchair) safely along public pavements without obstruction and risk of injury?

I entirely agree.

For this post; "without obstruction and risk of injury?"

This is a problem that we know about.

Have STC done a risk assessment, or are they open to being sued if someone doesn't see the obstruction and doesn't realise the danger and gets injured.

If STC get sued, where will the money come from?

The Postman said...

Not sure what you're saying -- that people might hurt themselves bumping into warning signs all over the place?

Anonymous said...

I demand that we have warning signs about warning signs.

It would stop all this needless pettifogging.

Yours, a lawyer

Anonymous said...

Dear Mr Postman
where I quoted you and wondered what would happen if someone hurt themselves , I was wondering where the responsibility lay if businesses are acting illegally, and that is known about by STC.
I think I my fears were prompted by a story I once heard about people who used to go into their Council offices and find out which pavement defects had been noted by the Council.
They then went out, found a 'non-noted' defect, fell over and sued the Council.

Anonymous said...

Reference to 'Lawyer' above.

God was unable to find a lawyer when he needed to sue the devil.

Anonymous said...

did he need to?